...the voice for the environment in the North

Divestment Day 2016 is coming up! Here’s a quick guide to what divestment is, the successes that divestment campaigns have had so far, and what we are doing this year.

What’s divestment?

Divestment is the opposite of investment. It’s rearranging your finances so that you aren’t supporting the fossil fuel industry through your bank, investments, superannuation or insurance. We have power as consumers to choose financial services products in-line with our strongly held convictions about climate change.

The Powering North Queensland Summit organised by the Australian Solar Council and the Energy Storage Council was held in Townsville on August 31. The list of speakers included Curtis Pitt, local MPs and senior management from a dozen renewable energy projects - Copperstring, Genex, Infigen and more. “Community groups” were encouraged to attend; NQCC was represented by the President, Gail Hamilton. Dr Bill Laing, NQCC member and committed campaigner for solar energy, also attended and was kind enough to send us his summary. Here it is.

This post originally appeared on NQCC Vice-President Peter Hanley's blog.

Last Saturday the North Queensland Conservation Council hosted a screening of “Chasing Coral”, a recently released film that documents the disastrous bleaching events that have destroyed large areas of coral reef around the world. Following the film there was a panel discussion featuring Dr John ”Charlie” Veron, Tony Fontes, a tourism operator from Airlie Beach and Dr David Wachenfeld, the Director of Reef Recovery at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Welcome to the July Paperbark! Check out all the wonderful events happening around our community this month! NQCC is recruiting - an ad will appear on Ethical Jobs over the coming days. If you are interested in joining the NQCC team, email NQCC President Gail Hamilton at president@nqcc.org.au

News

‘Chasing Coral’ film event

NQCC is proud to be delivering a local screening of the internationally acclaimed documentary ‘Chasing Coral’. This film records coral beaching around the world using time lapse cinematography. After the film there will be a Q&A panel with Dr Charlie Veron who is featured in the film, Tony Fontes who is a dive instructor and Reef campaigner from Airlie Beach, and Dr David Wachenfeld who is the Director of the Reef Recovery Program at GBRMPA. A must-see event!

On 4 July the Queensland Land Court handed down its decision to uphold the mining lease and environmental authority for the Kevin’s Corner coal mine in the Galilee Basin. NQCC commenced legal action in 2015 challenging that the cumulative impact assessment was not properly conducted. Read our full media release and background information here.

A call out to all young people, aged 15–30, living in North Queensland who care about a safe climate and a just and sustainable future.

Over July 22–24 in Melbourne, 700 young Australians from across the country will have the opportunity to gather at Power Shift, one of Australia’s largest youth climate justice events, to hear inspiring speakers, to train in communication and campaign organising, and to meet and network with passionate young people from across the country.

Run by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) and Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Climate Network, this summit will focus on Stop Adani, the campaign to prevent the disastrous coal project on the Great Barrier Reef, threatening our sick Reef and opening up millions of tonnes worth of coal which will spell game over for our climate. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are at the forefront of climate change, which is why at Power Shift we’ll have a big focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resistance.

AYCC and Seed are committed to making this event accessible to folks from regional areas who ordinarily may not have the opportunity to attend, so they are making 2 free tickets available (ordinarily $150ea) to any young networks of NQCC who think this is the event for them. Send an email to Robin at robin.parkin@aycc.org.au by Thursday July 13, quoting 'NQCC' to claim.

North Queensland Conservation Council today vowed to continue its fight to have the cumulative impacts of opening up the Galilee Basin to a clutch of new coal mines taken into account by having ‘Cumulative Impact Assessments’ thoroughly considered by governments charged with approving mining projects.

NQCC was an objector in the GVK Hancock Kevin’s Corner coal mine case in the Queensland Land Court. NQCC Coordinator Maree Dibella was speaking after learning of the decision to uphold approvals for a Mining Lease and an Environmental Authority for the project. Kevin’s Corner is a proposed 30 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) coal mine in the Galilee Basin that would cover over 37,000 hectares and be worked for 30 years (a period that the mining company defined as a ‘temporary interruption’ of other uses).

This is a guest post by NQCC member and volunteer, Priscilla Peto. Priscilla took up the challenge of "Plastic Free July" last year and shares with us her experiences and lessons of the past year. The views expressed in this post are the author's and not necessarily those of NQCC.

Plastic Free July is just around the corner, so I thought I’d share my experience of reducing the plastic in my life. Last year was the first time I engaged in the challenge to make my life plastic free for a month. I started by visiting plasticfreejuly.org to see what it was all about and where I could start changing my habits.

It’s amazing how this one month challenge introduced long-term sustainable habits, most of which I continue today. Plastic Free July has significantly reduced my meat intake, reduced the amount of products I purchase and makes me think twice before eating take away and the food outlets I pick.

North Queensland Conservation Council President, Gail Hamilton, speaking about the local efforts to act on climate change and move forward to renewable energy. NQCC is the voice for the environment in North Queensland, campaigning as the peak non-government environmental organisation in our region since 1974.

We protect the environment through advocacy and education, promote the values of the natural environment, and engage with policy and planning processes to advocate ecologically sustainable development.

NQCC is a founding member of the Stop Adani Alliance, a growing network of organisations which stand together to stop the Adani Carmichael coal mine, rail and port project.

The Queensland Government is taking strong action to reduce the risk of taxpayers footing the bill to clean up mine sites, and to ensure that mine sites are properly rehabilitated to community expectations.

The significant impact and liability left by the mining industry across Queensland has had substantial attention in recent years. The Queensland Government has recognised the significant risk posed by this existing and future possible liability and commenced a broad review of the financial assurance framework.

NQCC made a submission to the review. This post contains our key points and two local case studies - Ben Lomond and Kidston.

North Queensland Conservation Council’s members and supporters gathered this morning outside a Reef Summit meeting being put on by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, dismayed at news reports this week that half of the Great Barrier Reef may already be dead. (See: Terry Hughes tweet, Dr Russell Reichelt in Monday’s Senate Estimates)

“This is an unprecedented tragedy. It appears half of the Reef may be dead following back-to-back bleaching events in 2016 and 2017” said NQCC Coordinator Maree Dibella.

“Climate change isn’t a future possibility. The climate has already changed by 0.7 degrees and we’ve seen how this small increase has devastated the Reef. It’s absolutely crucial we take every effort to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees if we have any hope of the Reef remaining for the next generation.”

“We need smart and swift action right now. This means no new coal projects. That starts by stopping Adani’s mine. Today we’re calling upon the State Government to rule out cutting a royalties deal with Adani. We are also asking the Federal Government to not hand Adani $1 billion of Australian taxpayers’ money to prop up this otherwise failing project.”

“People at the rally want to see the Reef survive bleaching events and sea temperature rise. We need to protect the near 70,000 jobs that rely on a healthy Reef ecosystem. We want investment in our region for long-term, sustainable jobs, not coal jobs liable to a typical mining boom and bust cycle.”